Sunday morning recipe

Good morning all!

I hope everybody had a fabulous Christmas. I am happy to report that Christmas came and went with lots of smiles and hugs from my little ones. While Christmas this year was on a much smaller scale, the kids didn't seem to notice and it was more relaxing all the way around.

The big "family gift" this year given to me by my sweet Mom and Dad was Wii Fit. Good thing we got it, since we've been partaking in seasonal goodies. Heck, what's 30 minutes of exercise if I can eat Christmas cookies and fudge without guilt? LOL.

And speaking of goodies, I've got these ridiculously easy muffins baking in the came out of the oven right now. While the recipe is simple, these muffins are incredibly good are often requested in our home.

Hershey's Cinnamon Chip Muffins

2 cups bisquick® baking mix
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg -- slightly beaten
1 cup HERSHEY'S Cinnamon Chips
2/3 cup milk

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease or paperline 12 muffin cups (2-1/2-inches in diameter).

2. Stir together baking mix, sugar, vegetable oil, egg, cinnamon chips and milk in medium bowl just until moistened. Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or just until browned. Cool slightly; remove from pan. 12 muffins.

Christmas Meme

Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, for sure. While gift bags are convenient for sure, there's nothing prettier to me than a gift wrapped up in pretty Christmas wrapping paper.

Real tree or Artificial? Artificial but only because you can put them up easier and it doesn't involve my husband's help LOL I really do love having a real tree and will probably have one again in the near future.

When do you put up the tree? As tradition in our home, the day after Thanksgiving.

When do you take the tree down? Usually the weekend after January 1st.

Do you like eggnog? Yep love it. My Dad makes his own every year!

Favorite gift received as a child? A black puppy.

Hardest person to buy for? My parents. They appreciate everything but it's getting harder to find something they actually don't have or need LOL

Easiest person to buy for? My daughter

Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, purchased while I was in Mexico made of alabaster.

Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. I usually mail Christmas cards every year but wasn't able to get them out on time this year.

Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Nuts. I despise nuts and one year, every child in my classroom (that was 18 children) gave me a canister of nuts LOL My husband was in heaven that year.

Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life.

When do you start shopping for Christmas? Last night? No seriously... I think I started right after Halloween.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh yeah.

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas cookies. Peanut butter kiss cookies to be specific.

Lights on the tree? Colored but only because my husband and children insist on them.

Favorite Christmas song? The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole.

Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. Thankfully, I have both sets of parents here in neighboring towns.

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Uhm, are you kidding? I am a preschool teacher, ya know.

Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open one on Xmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning.

Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Tie: TV commercials and my husband's family bickering.

Favorite ornament theme or color? I collect snowflakes (lol) since we don't get snow here in Florida. Actually, I am a native New Englander and it reminds me of all of my cherished childhood Christmases.

What do you want for Christmas this year? I'm already getting it... Christmas break with my family.

Angel or star on top tree: Star.

Favorite meal: Spiral glazed ham.

(Now if you are still reading... consider yourself tagged :-)

More of my favorite things and a recipe

Today is day number 2 of "Display Your Pitiful Christmas Decoration Day". Yes, I should be doing other things today like oh... baking, cleaning, cooking, finishing Christmas shopping but this time of year is when I let my procrastinating nature really shine through. LOL.

Don't worry about me though, I'll get it done. Sadly, I'm actually ahead of years past where I was sitting up at midnight wrapping presents. This year I've actually got about 75% of my presents already wrapped and under the tree. And today, to soothe my nerves, will probably be a baking day for me. (For all of four of my BFF who actually follow my blog, today is afterall haircut day. Listen for the scream at approximately 5:00pm EDT)

So without further rambling, here are some of my favorite things:

During a more creative moment, I decided to pull my 11-year-old's tricycle that I had been storing in the attic and fill it with my 8-year-olds teddy bear collection. Cute, huh? Sorry about the wire there. I should have fixed it before I took the picture.

A very silly Santa that arrived in my husband's stocking a couple of Christmas seasons ago. When turned on, he really plays the drums ROFL

My snowy wreath. Actually, I should have taken a picture of this whole room which we now call the snowy room LOL I flocked a cheapie wreath with snow and of course added all of my snowflake ornaments. Below it on my mantle, is a flocked garand filled with twinkling snowflake lights. It came out very pretty. My family loves this room now. It is filled with sparkly lights. They actually turn these lights on before the Christmas tree room. Go figure.

Another silly Santa. This was actually given to me by a little boy from my class about 3 years ago. He's actually a votive candle holder. Can you see those stars? They actually look quite magical when a candle is glowing inside of him.

And finally this music box:

It reminds me of the real wood burning stove that my Grandmother had in her farmhouse in Vermont. I miss her.

Okay now that I've tortured you long enough, here's a new recipe courtesy of the Crockpot Lady. I made a batch of it last night to warm us up after ice skating. Ice skating in Florida? Yep, it's true...'cept it wasn't ice. But I'll save that for a whole different post.

Here it is:

Holiday Punch

The Ingredients.

4 cups cranberry juice
4 cups pineapple juice
1/3 cup hot tamales or red hots candy
1 cinnamon stick

that's it!

The Directions.

This serves 6. Combine juices in your crockpot, and add hot tamales or red hots. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or on low for 4-5. Stir. The candy will pretty much dissolve, leaving just a hint of cinnamony-flavor.

Ladle into mugs, garnishing with an extra cinnamon stick if desire.

Verdict: This was a huge hit with my family. Being the sugar monsters that we are, we did add in more hot tamales candy in it. What a special Christmas treat.

Display Your Pitiful Christmas Decoration Day

Thanks to my friend Debbie over at From A Creative Heart, today is "Display Your Pitiful Christmas Decoration Day"

This, er um, "holiday" (?) is an inside joke. Debbie gave me a tip to go check out Warm Pie, Happy Home for some inspiration. Girls, if you haven't checked this blog out, go run and check it out after you look at my pictures. You simply won't believe RuthAnn's beautiful house. She makes Martha Stewart look like Roseanne Barr *lol* Her house is so beautiful that I told Debbie that was going to slit my wrist with holly and delete all of my Christmas tree pictures and soooooo..... a holiday was born LOL

So without further delay, here is this year's Christmas tree. This year, I added in white lights with the colored lights and loved the effect. It kind of added a snowy feel to it.

Hey cool tree... can you tell us a little about some of the more meaning Christmas ornaments?

Oh so glad you asked. You really did ask, I promise you.

While this is definitely not the prettiest ornament on the tree, it is definitely the oldest. It was given to me by my Grandmother back in 1968.

This is another "vintage" ornament given to me by the same Grandmother back in 1972. The picture really doesn't do it justice. You'll just have to take my word on it. Grandma G. was not known as being a crafter at all so this ornament will remain one of my favorites.

Yet another vintage ornament from 1973. This was given to me by Santa the same Christmas Santa brought me a real poodle.

This ornament was given to me by a co-worker the year my son was born. It is ceramic. I always get very sentimental every time I hang this on our tree :-)

Here are some relatively newer additions to my tree. I love retro Christmas items. These two ornaments came from The Christmas Place on one of our many trips to Tennessee:

This ornament came from Tennessee as well. I love him. He reminds me of my childhood in New England where chickadees are native.

A new ornament I received this year from one of my students. The reindeer appears to be made out of real bark. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of him.

And one last ornament (for today), it was given to me by my Director. Those are simulated pearls and rhinestones that are inlaid into the cross.

Well thanks for taking a look at my "pitiful" Christmas decorations. As you can see, our Christmas tree may not be beautiful and "perfect" but it is perfectly decorated with much love and memories.

As promised...

Here is the recipe for the fabulous Chicken Sesame that I mentioned earlier on Twitter. A word of caution: If you decide to make this for your family, you'll get much admiration from your family and they'll say things like "Oh this tastes better than the Chinese restaurant" (which translates loosely into now we don't have to go out for Chinese anymore).

But seriously, this recipe tastes like "the real deal". Enjoy.

Sesame Chicken

• 3 whole boneless chicken breasts

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cooking wine or dry sherry
• 3 drops sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Sauce

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/8-1/4 cup white vinegar or rice wine vinegar (depending on how sweet you want the sauce)
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chili paste (or more)
• 1 garlic clove (minced)

Frying

• Peanut oil (3 1/2-4 cups)

Serving

• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1. Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients (the first 9 ingredients listed) and marinate the chicken for 20 minutes.
2. To prepare the sauce:.
3. Mix together all of the sauce ingredients (the LAST 9 ingredients beginning with water). Pour them into a small pot and bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Turn the heat down to low and keep warm while you are deep-frying the chicken.
4. To deep-fry the chicken:.
5. Add the marinated chicken pieces a few at a time, and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and then place chicken in warm oven (130 degrees) while you continue frying. Repeat with the remainder of the chicken. Just before you are finished deep-frying, bring the sauce back up to a boil.
6. Place the chicken on a large platter and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve the Sesame Chicken with rice.

Santa came early for me!

Look what I found today! Seems Santa must have gotten my address wrong and delivered this to a neighbor's house instead *grin*.

Today it was such a beautiful day that our family decided to take a leisurely bike ride around our neighborhood. On a whim, I decided to peddle down a road that I have never been down before. And there she was. Sitting in somebody's driveway with a sign that said "For Sale $25".

Immediately, I ignored my family's plea not to trespass and to pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease get out of the driveway before somebody saw me.

As luck may have it, the homeowner "Steve" came out and said, "Hi! Merry Christmas! Hey are you guys interested in that bench? You can have it for free. My wife told me to bring it to Goodwill today but if you want it... it's all yours."

After I did a happy dance and thanked my new BFF (*lol*) I peddled home at warp speed and drove back to Steve's house to bring my new addition home.

Thank you, Santa Steve :-)

Christmas Dinner

Here it is a mere 4 days of Christmas and I still trying to nail down what I'm going to serve my family for dinner. Thankfully, I have parents and In-laws who basically love anything I cook.

Every year it seems to get a little bit more difficult to plan meals since our beloved parents seem to develop various ailments which prevent them from eating the foods we love but I do my best.

The one thing I have definitely decided on is a nice spiraled ham. I know a lot of people love Turkey or Roast Beef but there is something so Christmasy about a glazed spiraled ham at Christmas. Plus we get to pick on the leftovers LOL.

So, here is what I have planned so far. Again, from previous posts you know I don't like to commit to anything (even food) because you just never know... I might find something better LOL.

For starters, I'm going to cheat and serve an Italian Cheese Tray. (That's the picture up there on top). I might substitute or add in marinated mushrooms, add a block of either Roquefort or Parmesan and maybe add some grapes.

For the main course, well.. that's where I'm still working out the specifics. Seems our family gatherings have gotten into a rut and continue serving the same side dishes for every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

By request of my daughter, Sweet Potato Casserole. This is a family favorite.

1 1/2 quarts mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs -- beaten
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 cup butter -- melted
Topping:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter -- melted
1 cup flour -- approximately
1 cup pecans

Mash potatoes, butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs together and pour into a greased baking dish.

In a separate bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, and pecans. Stir in melted butter in small amounts until crumbly. You may not need all of it.

Sprinkle topping onto potatoes. Garnish with additional chopped or halved pecans on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.



A new addition to the Christmas table:

Tyler Florence's Scalloped Potato Gratin

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Butter
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for broiling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a saucepan, heat up the cream with a sprig of thyme, chopped garlic and nutmeg.

While cream is heating up, butter a casserole dish. Place a layer of potato in an overlapping pattern and season with salt and pepper. Remove cream from heat, then pour a little over the potatoes. Top with some grated Parmesan. Make 2 more layers. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Sprinkle some more Parmesan and broil until cheese browns, about 5 minutes.

The remaining vegetables are pretty much up in the air right now. I might just go basic steamed so it won't compete with the other flavors of the meal. I will also make the Cranberry Bliss (see former post)

For dessert... heh.. I'm actually contemplating on making a chocolate dessert station. Buckeyes, Brownies, slices of peanut butter pie, gourmet chocolate bars. Oh yum. Good thing Santa is bringing me Wii Fit this year. I'm gonna need it.